ELIZABETH ARDEN SUNSET BRONZE SUMMER 2016.

Apart from for the 8 Hour Cream and possibly Prevage skincare range, Elizabeth Arden isn't really a brand I show much attention for, and I'm sure I'm not the only one to say that! Completely not looking for it, I stumbled across their Summer 2016 collection and, well, it ended up coming home with me..

Whilst Dior and Chanel have chosen to go for brights and more unusual colours within their summer collections, I'm far more drawn to embracing glowing skin and lots of shimmer and bronzey sparkle now that the weather is warming up, and Elizabeth Arden's Sunset Bronze Summer 2016 is exactly that.

Prismatic Bronzing Powder £28 | Housed within beautiful rose gold packaging (although I'm not overly sure about the 'jazzy' lid), this silky, soft embossed powder is a beautiful bronzer. Inside the compact is a large mirror, good for on-the-go touchups, and a number of strips of different bronze shades to swirl together to create a warm but flattering glow. The powder looks immediately glitzy when you open the compact, and although there's a subtle golden shimmer that runs right through the bronzer, the top layer is just a spray over so worry not about looking too 'disco ball'. There's a lot of pigmentation in this product but Argan oil and Vitamin E helps to you to smooth and blend, and prevents skin from over-drying - it also comes with a little half-moon brush, but I prefer to use a big fluffy tapered brush, like this one. There are 2 shades to choose from - 01 Warm Bronze (my chosen shade), the cooler and lighter of the two, and 02 Deep Bronze, which I'd say is only really suitable for those with darker or very tanned skins.

Prismatic Highlighter in Eclipse £25 | So I know I raved about the highlighters from the Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess Summer 2016 collection (review + swatches here) as if they were the best and unrivaled things I've come across in beauty this season, but some space definitely has to be made for this prismatic highlighter from Elizabeth Arden, because they have just knocked it out of the park with the colour and formula. A lot of cream, stick highlighters are either too yellow-gold, too frosty, too white, too chunky, or just imperfect in some way. This one is beau-tiful. There's a perfect mix of gold, champagne, rose gold, and a little hint of white and bronze hues that I am just so enamoured with - tell me you know the feeling you get when you come across something just so beautiful and it almost makes your heart flutter you're so excited about it? It's that feeling. Enriched with Aloe and Vitamin E, the texture is so slick and creamy and smooth, it behaves like an oil suspended in gel, blending effortlessly on the skin and gives the most enviable glow. Pigment is strong enough but by no means overwhelming, you can blend out or build up as you please, and the shimmer particles are as fine as the Kevyn Aucoin Candlelight cream, enabling an elegant highlight. If you are a highlighting fiend, you definitely need this in your collection.

Prismatic Eyeshadow Palette in Summer Seduction £25 | I'm having to borrow photos from Fashion For Lunch (and aren't they beautiful?) for the shadows and glosses as unfortunately they didn't have this in stock at my Elizabeth Arden counter (boo hoo!) but it's sourceable online and that is definitely something I'll be doing. With 5 shades in the palette, there's a good mix of colours, although it's the shimmery pink shade that catches my eye.

Prismatic Lipgloss £18 | Same story with these lipglosses as the eyeshadow palette! The glosses come in 3 shades, all sparkly and definitely summer-ready. Shade's 2 and 3, Midnight Kiss and Sunset Kiss, are definitely my favourites - I think these glosses would be great to wear alone for some simple sparkle, or would be great toppers for another lipstick, just going in the centre of the lips to highlight and make them look juicy.

My first thoughts on the collection are how pretty the contents look. The eyeshadow shades look well considered, the highlighter looks different from the standard white/golds you see everywhere, and you know how I feel about embossed powders. My immediate second thoughts are with regards to the price point on some of the items - it's way up there for the cheek products in my opinion, £25+ for a highlighting stick (especially this one with such little product) and bronzing powder is fairly steep. As lovely as the bronzer is, I'm not sure it's HG enough to repurchase (it's got a lot of other bronzers to compete with), but the highlighting stick is an absolute find and I would definitely snap that up again - although with the whole collection being limited edition, I'll have to get my skates on!

Beautiful collection! Not usually into Elizabeth Arden products so this is a perfect opportunity to try it out. I really like the prismatic Highlighter in Eclipse :) Such a pretty shade and great for summer.

Can't get over how beautiful the packaging is for this range. I normally use Elizabeth Arden skin care but can't say I've ever tried much of their make up range that highlighter looks amazing and such a nice colour for holidays etc :) x